A new device out of CES 2024 in Las Vegas caught my eye. At first glance, the Rabbit R1 doesn't look all that interesting. It's a US$199 (in America), orange, handheld device that looks like an old-style gaming machine of some kind about the size of a stack of Post-It notes. It comes with a 2.88-inch touchscreen, a camera, a voice command button and a 4G LTE SIM card slot for connectivity beyond Wi-Fi. This is not a smartphone and won't replace it as there are no onboard apps, it won't pair with your smartphone and it doesn't talk to application APIs like cloud service gateways.
- Now that I've probably lowered expectations, it's a Large Language Model device that Rabbit has called a "Large Action Model". As you train it, the R1 learns your connections to different platforms like Spotify and travel sites. Making a travel booking typically takes multiple steps or actions on your phone. The R1 can do this with a voice prompt. The current versions of Chat-GPT, for example, could get all the info but not make the actual booking for you. The user trains the device to do the things they want to do, simplifying their daily life. Want to add a song to your Spotify list? Say so into the device and, assuming you have introduced the R1 to your Spotify account, it will do so. That's the key, you train the unit to connect to your digital world and it can perform tasks other devices can't, yet. The unit will be available in late March.
- If you want another example of using AI to benefit humanity, then look no further than the collaboration between Microsoft and the US National Energy people. The Microsoft AI was used to reduce 35 million candidates for better battery materials down to a handful, with the final top one using a new mix of sodium, lithium and some other components. With 75% less lithium, this potentially brings cost down and saves material. The AI was used to model mixtures and then simulate the reactions to save scientists hundreds of years of physical testing. In the past we've seen similar activities used to match compounds to medical conditions. I'm interested to see how this turns out and it looks like the Chinese are already working on manufacturing something based on the findings.
- Is YouTube malware? This was a question asked recently. It's been reported that when watching a YouTube video with and ad-blocker enabled, the CPU usage increases by up to 17%. Unless I'm grabbing data from a YouTube video for my next article, I never watch YouTube on my PC now. Instead, I watch it on my TV and skip the ads as soon as I can. Yes, as a private business YouTube has the right to block people from watching their content. This is why Rumble is expanding so rapidly. I watch most of my content there and I encourage all content providers to at least duplicate their material there. When, as reported, it comes to messing with someone's computer, that is a whole different thing. If you are pushing a CPU, potentially into overheating and possibly causing damage, that puts you in the realm of malware.
- I'm also seeing more and longer ads. The record to date is a 60-second block with four ads in the stream and no skip. A few days after I'd written the previous sentence, I had a two-minute ad on stock investment that was not skippable. There's a rumour going around that Elon is looking to buy YouTube. If true, think of the impact on the reach of social media. People banned and defunded will come back and make money again. YouTube is essentially killing itself with this behaviour and, quite frankly, they deserve everything that happens to them. You don't deliberately mess with people's computers and suffer no consequences. YouTube also continues to run advertisements for fake products like drones and air conditioners that don't meet the claimed specifications and capabilities, effectively ripping people off. Apparently, they have no shame.
- It's that time again where the next Samsung Galaxy range has been released. Apart from some CPU upgrades, brighter screen, a later version of Android, Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.3 support, the main upgrade appears to be the integrated AI support and the 200MP camera in the Ultra version. So, what are the new AI features? Live translate during a phone call allowing both people to speak and hear in their native language. Note assist to summarise content. Transcript assist to capture meeting notes. Chat assist to help you craft the perfect comment. Photo assist to manipulate your pictures, and the capability to circle something on your phone to trigger a Google search. According to reports, it won't do people searches so "who is that?" won't work. All of these are available as apps but Samsung has neatly integrated them into the user interface.
- This is early days for AI phones, so I expect we'll see a plethora of them from other manufacturers in the near future. The next range of phones will also reportedly support calls using the Elon Musk satellite network.
James Hein is an IT professional with over 30 years' standing. You can contact him at jclhein@gmail.com.